Added a new reward system to structured PvP. When playing structured PvP, players will select a single reward track to be active at a time and earn a variety of rewards as they progress through the track.

To progress reward tracks, players need play PvP in a match that has progress enabled.

All eight dungeon reward tracks will be available on a biweekly rotation, one at a time. Alternatively, each dungeon reward track can be permanently unlocked on an account-wide basis by completing the corresponding story mode of that dungeon.

The reward track system will have both repeatable and non-repeatable tracks. We will be shipping with five region tracks, eight dungeon tracks, and one Balthazar Back Item track that has a unique back item skin, which can be equipped and used in PvE, PvP, and WvW with the new wardrobe.

Chest, leg, and boot armor still contribute to the total defense value.

All attribute values are consistent with the old system.

PvP gear now includes unique rune, sigil, and amulet slots.

Players now have access to a new build-editing UI.

While in structured PvP, there is a new quick-launch bar at the top of the screen to access the new PvP Build panel and the game browsers.

There is also a new hotkey option for the PvP Build panel in the Control Options menu.

PvP build components are no longer items but are chosen from a constantly available list of options.

Sigils are selected without having to apply them to weapons.

Runes are selected without having to apply them to armor.

Only one rune set may be chosen at a time, giving the full six-piece bonus.

Players can do a search for specific runes, sigils, amulets, and weapons.

Players can sort by category (attribute or sigil archetype).

Underwater weapons have been removed since underwater aspects of maps, or maps containing a large underwater portion, have been removed from rotation.

PvP Ranks Updated

Changed the required rank points needed to level for PvP ranks 40 through 80. Each of these ranks now requires 20,000 rank points.

This changes the maximum required rank points needed to obtain a Dragon rank from 8.9 million down to 1.1 million.

Some high-ranking PvP players will be moved up the ranks due to the rank rebalance. These players will receive rank rewards based on their new rank.

With the new PvP rank rebalance, some players will be moved to rank 80. They will be able to get rewards by progressing through rank 80 after they’ve initially achieved it. Each time rank 80 is completed, additional rewards will be awarded.

PvP Map Updates

New Courtyard Map

This map is a special treat for the PvP community. Player-created spin-offs of the game have been very enjoyable for the team, and this map was created to help support those efforts. The Courtyard is a pure team deathmatch map designed especially for smaller encounters but is still fun with standard-size groups. The Courtyard map is not a fully supported game mode and is only available in player-owned custom arenas. We are really looking forward to seeing this map used for some of the 2v2, 3v3, and other styles of play that the community has come up with.

This is a small map with no capture points.

This map will only be available for custom arena owners.

Players will be able to progress toward ranks and reward tracks in the Courtyard.

Removing Raid on the Capricorn

Raid on the Capricorn was created to test the waters with underwater combat in PvP, but it is not something that the team would like to continue. Raid on the Capricorn has been removed from PvP along with the underwater training areas in Heart of the Mists. Underwater weapons were subsequently removed from the revamped build UI.

Skins are unlocked by using consumables, equipping items, salvaging equipment, destroying items in the player’s inventory, acquiring weapons and armor that are bound to the player’s account or character, or right-clicking on the equipment and account-binding it.

Items that have gone through skin progression, like legendary weapons or Spinal Blade back items, will unlock all the skins in their direct progression line (e.g., if players have Twilight, they will get access to both Twilight and Dusk across their account.)

Items that players own that have already been transmuted will unlock the appearance for the first (original) item used for stats and the last item used for appearance.

Skins are applied to equipment by clicking the Wardrobe button on the Equipment tab of the Hero panel. All unlocked skins available to the character are shown in the Hero panel and can be applied to the equipment the character is currently wearing for one transmutation charge per item changed.

Players can log in to each character on their account to unlock all skins bound to that character.

The Hero panel now includes more options for character customization and managing gear.

Use the Equipment section of the Equipment tab to manage gear that is currently equipped.

Use the Wardrobe section of the Equipment tab to manage the transmutation of currently equipped gear by selecting and applying skins that have been unlocked.

Use the Dyes section of the Equipment tab to see all dyes that have been unlocked and apply them to currently equipped items.

Changes in the Wardrobe section and the Dyes section can be committed at the same time, allowing players to preview the new look before applying any visual changes to their equipped gear.

Dyes can now be previewed on mouse hover and are not applied until confirmed.

Dyes are now account unlocks.

Each dye unlocked on a character will be unlocked for the player’s entire account the next time they log in with that character.

Duplicate dyes unlocked on multiple characters will be compensated by mailing the player an Unidentified Dye when the second character logs in.

Unidentified Dyes no longer drop as common loot from creatures in the world. They are still available as rewards and as a Mystic Forge result.

Dye packs can still be crafted by cooks.

The laurel cost of Unidentified Dyes has changed to 5 laurels for one dye.

Any four crafted dye packs can now be combined in the Mystic Forge to create an Unidentified Dye.

To account for the increased scarcity of Unidentified Dye, the Gift of Color recipe now only requires 100 Unidentified Dyes.

All armor and weapon skins are now stored in the Wardrobe Storage tab, which is part of the Account Vault in the bank.

Items can be sorted, filtered, and previewed directly from the Account Wardrobe tab.

All skins usable by the current character’s profession and race can also be seen by clicking the Wardrobe button on the Equipment tab of the Hero panel.

Transmutation Changes

The transmutation system has been replaced with the Wardrobe system. Transmuting items is now done via the Hero panel and applies an unlocked skin to the currently equipped item instead of combining two items into a new item.

Double-click Transmutation Crystals to convert them directly into Transmutation Charges.

Double-click Transmutation Stones to convert them into Transmutation Charges at a 3-to-1 ratio.

With the addition of the Wardrobe system and the removal of the PvP locker, players will receive one Transmutation Charge for every PvP rank they have achieved.

Outfits

Outfits are a new item type that allows players to set their character’s look without affecting their stats.

Outfits are full-body costumes that hide currently equipped armor.

Players can hide or show an outfit at any time in the Hero panel. This setting will remain set in any game area.

Players can hide or show the helmet of their outfit at any time in the Hero panel by clicking the checkbox on the helmet while the outfit is toggled on.

Each outfit has up to four dye channels to customize colors uniformly across the entire outfit.

Outfits are available in the Style category of the Black Lion Trading Company Gem Store.

Town clothes have been replaced by the wardrobe and outfits as a way to customize characters in and out of combat.

Players can visit a Black Lion Armor Trader in any major city to have their town clothes converted to items compatible with the new wardrobe.

Full outfits such as the Cook’s Outfit and Mad King’s Outfit are now outfits as described above.

Most hats have been converted to helmet skins usable by any class.

Toys have been converted to inventory items, which summon a bundle with all the same functionality as before.

Some single-piece town clothes that are no longer available have been converted to endless tonics that transform the player into a complete casual look, including that single piece of clothing.

Many world bosses are now synchronized to activate at the same time across all worlds and instances of the map they occur in.

The following low-level-zone world bosses will activate at 15 minutes and 45 minutes past the hour in this rotation:

Great Jungle Wurm (Caledon Forest)

Shadow Behemoth (Queensdale)

Svanir Shaman Chief (Wayfarer Foothills)

Fire Elemental (Metrica Province)

The following standard world bosses will activate on the hour and 30 minutes past the hour in this rotation:

The Shatterer (Blazeridge Steppes)

Modniir Ulgoth (Harathi Hinterlands)

Golem Mark II (Mount Maelstrom)

Claw of Jormag (Frostgorge Sound)

Admiral Taidha Covington (Bloodtide Coast)

Megadestroyer (Mount Maelstrom)

TBD / Space Reserved for Future Event

The following extra-hard world bosses will occur at specific times, interrupting the standard rotation:

Karka Queen (Southsun Cove)

03:30 PDT

09:00 PDT

18:00 PDT

Tequatl the Sunless (Sparkfly Fen)

04:30 PDT

10:00 PDT

19:00 PDT

Triple Trouble (Bloodtide Coast)

05:30 PDT

11:00 PDT

20:00 PDT

The standard rotation and low-level rotation will reset every day at midnight (PDT).

To support this feature, most world bosses in these rotations have been modified in various ways.

Karka Queen

Once the boss is activated, players have fifteen minutes to lure out the Karka Queen by capturing all four settlements in the Island Control meta-event. If the timer expires, the Karka Queen will not emerge.

Claw of Jormag

Once the boss is activated, players have fifteen minutes to lure out the Claw of Jormag by completing all five corrupted crystal events. If the timer expires, the corrupted crystal events will fail, the Claw of Jormag will not land, and any remaining corrupted creatures will continue to inhabit the region.

Various scaling factors were adjusted to keep difficulty consistent through a wider range of player counts.

The Shatterer

Once the boss is activated, players have fifteen minutes to help Vigil and Sentinel forces prepare for their assault on the Shatterer. If the events are not completed when the timer expires, the Shatterer will not land.

The Shatterer’s regen crystals have grown larger and stronger. They are also spread farther apart, making it more difficult to stop the Shatterer from regenerating its health.

Various scaling factors were adjusted to keep difficulty consistent through a wider range of player counts.

Admiral Taidha Covington

The Lion’s Arch Galleon will appear at Taidha’s base as soon as the boss is activated to draw fire from Taidha’s defenses.

If the Lion’s Arch Galleon is destroyed, the event fails, causing the Lionguard to retreat. Players can help the galleon survive by defeating Taidha’s cannoneers.

Once the north and south towers of Taidha’s base are destroyed, the galleon will begin bombarding the door. Players can assist the bombardment by carrying explosive kegs to the door.

If the door is destroyed, the event to kill Taidha will begin as normal.

Various scaling factors were adjusted to keep difficulty consistent through a wider range of player counts.

Modniir Ulgoth

The Modniir Ulgoth will immediately appear near the War King’s Greatcamp once the boss is activated to rally his forces.

The Ulgoth is protected by his elemental magic until the Seraph advance their forces up to the Greatcamp and force the Ulgoth into battle.

If the players do not help the Seraph forces advance, the Ulgoth will declare victory and retire, causing the event to fail and the centaur forces to push back against the Seraph.

The Seraph will relentlessly assault the centaurs while the Modniir Ulgoth is present, giving the centaurs no time to counterattack (unless an assault fails).

Various scaling factors were adjusted to keep difficulty consistent through a wider range of player counts.

Megadestroyer

When the boss is activated, the volcano will become violently active, requiring the asuran geological specialists to intervene in order to prevent a catastrophic eruption.

Players will have twenty minutes to push the destroyers and Inquest back into the volcano’s core. If the timer expires, the volcano erupts.

The event to protect the asura and their technology while they quell the unstable volcano will now fail after ten minutes. If the timer expires, the volcano erupts.

If players fail the Megadestroyer event, the volcano still erupts.

Various scaling factors were adjusted to keep difficulty consistent through a wider range of player counts.

Golem Mark II

Once the boss is activated, players must first complete the event to disable the containers before they release their toxins. The event to defeat the Inquest’s Golem Mark II will begin shortly after this event succeeds.

Several bugs causing the golem’s attacks to occur in the wrong position were fixed.

The golem’s attacks were changed to use more clearly visible AoE warning circles.

Shadow Behemoth

The Monastery Ale event chain will no longer block the Shadow Behemoth event and will fail instead if it is active when the Shadow Behemoth chain is activated.

Once the boss is activated, players have fifteen minutes to complete all four portal events in order to draw out the Shadow Behemoth.

A portal to the center of Godslost Swamp will appear at all three portal events that take place outside of the swamp once they are completed.

The Shadow Behemoth’s portal phase has grown stronger. Additional portals will have to be destroyed before the Shadow Behemoth becomes vulnerable again.

Fixed a bug that prevented the Shadow Behemoth from using all of its skills.

Various scaling factors were adjusted to keep difficulty consistent through a wider range of player counts.

Fire Elemental

Once the boss is activated, the event to escort the C.L.E.A.N. 5000 golem while it absorbs clouds of chaos magic will begin immediately. Rooba will only wait five minutes for players to assist her, instead of forever.

Players have fifteen minutes to escort the C.L.E.A.N. 5000 golem to the end of its path before it becomes corrupted by chaos magic. If this timer expires or the Inquest captures the golem, the event will fail, causing the Inquest to reprogram the C.L.E.A.N. 5000 golem and have it return as a boss (instead of the Fire Elemental).

The event to destroy six piles of chaotic materials created by the reactor meltdown has become six individual events to destroy a single pile. This eliminates the undesirable effects of counting every player inside the reactor towards the scaling of each chaotic material encounter. All six of these events must be completed for the golem escort event to succeed.

Various scaling factors were adjusted to keep difficulty consistent through a wider range of player counts.

Great Jungle Wurm (Caledon Forest)

The event to protect Gamarien as he scouts Wychmire Swamp is no longer part of the Great Jungle Wurm event chain, but it now occurs when the boss event chain is not active.

When activated, players have ten minutes to complete the four blighted swamp events in Wychmire Swamp. If the timer expires, the Great Jungle Wurm will not appear, and the blighted creatures will remain in the swamp.

A bug that prevented the Great Jungle Wurm’s poison cloud attacks from attacking the right areas has been fixed.

The poison cloud attacks will now spread more evenly and consistently.

The Great Jungle Wurm’s husk absorption phase has grown stronger. If players allow the wurm to absorb a husk, a significant portion of the wurm’s health will be regenerated.

A bug that prevented the Great Jungle Wurm from summoning minions has been fixed.

Various scaling factors were adjusted to keep difficulty consistent through a wider range of player counts.

Svanir Shaman Chief

Once the boss is activated, a message will appear in the meta-event UI indicating that a powerful Sons of Svanir Shaman has been spotted in the Maw. If the event chain that involves protecting Scholar Brogun as he investigates the grawl tribe is not active at this time, it will begin immediately.

Scholar Brogun will only wait five minutes for player assistance, instead of forever.

If Scholar Brogun dies and is not resurrected by a player for a total of five minutes, the event chain will fail.

If the event to destroy the dragon totem has succeeded when the boss is not activated, Scholar Brogun will declare victory and return to Krennak’s homestead without fighting the shaman.

Guilds may now utilize a consumable item to activate certain world bosses at any time up to an hour before the scheduled beginning of a world boss, provided that world boss is not already running.

The Guild World Event unlock has been added to the Guild Upgrade panel.

Prerequisite: Guild Challenges Unlock

Influence Cost: 50,000

Merit Cost: 100

Build Time: 1 week

The Guild World Event consumable has been added to the Guild Upgrade panel.

Prerequisite: Guild World Events Unlock

Influence Cost: 10,000

Merit Cost: 20

Build Time: 24 hours

Cooldown: 45 minutes

Max Storage: 3

The Guild World Event consumable must be used near a Guild World Event marker, which has been added near each of the following bosses:

Karka Queen (Steampipe Steading, Southsun Cove)

Tequatl the Sunless (Fabled Djannor, Sparkfly Fen)

Triple Trouble (Firth of Revanion, Bloodtide Coast)

Megaservers

This new system introduces an improved way to enjoy Tyria by restructuring the way worlds and players are organized.

Instead of overflow and home world maps, players will now simply end up in the map that makes the most sense for them, depending on their social environment (party, guild, home world, and more).

One of the most visible benefits is that players will have more players at their side to enjoy Guild Wars 2.

This new system will first be enabled in the Heart of the Mists and then progressively rolled out to the rest of the open world, starting with the less populated areas.

The order as well as the speed of the rollout may differ from what was previously announced in the original blog post, as we are adjusting our plans after further testing. It might continue to evolve during the process as we collect data and adjust accordingly.

Fixed an issue that was unintentionally causing the Great Jungle Wurm event to scale erratically.

Boss chests in dungeons are now limited to once a day. Champion loot bags and dungeon tokens from the bosses themselves will not be limited in this way.

Event and champion rewards have been changed.

All open world champions have been converted into events to allow for them to scale for large groups, or have had their classification changed to elite or veteran.

Updated the Defend the Pact Interrupter from Risen Attacks event in Cursed Shore to correctly track seven waves of attackers. Added a 10-minute fail timer to put the event in line with other temple hold events.

Reduced volcano event spawns in Mount Maelstrom to put them more in line with expected creature counts, specifically at max scaling.

General

Fixed a bug that caused the wrong gathering tool to be shown to other players.

Fixed a bug that caused the camera height to not change depending on the scale of the character.

Fixed a bug that prevented watched achievements from being automatically cleared after they were completed.

Fixed a bug that prevented the sort order for watched achievements from being saved between play sessions.

Fixed a bug that prevented the progress displayed in the Achievement panel from matching the selected sort order.

Fixed a bug that caused a jotun’s kick attack to force players to drop whatever bundle they were using.

The wallet information pop-up no longer displays for new characters.

Completing a renown heart now gives a reward splash instead of sending mail.

Various adjustments have been made to the splash notifications that appear in the bottom right of the screen to improve consistency and spacing.

Armor repair costs have been removed.

The guild upgrade that provided a discount to armor repair has been replaced with Disciplined Maneuvers, a buff that increases WXP gained by guild members for a time.

Some Mystic Forge recipes have been updated to provide a wider range of results.

Fixed a bug that caused magic find to be applied erroneously to some reward rolls.

The inherent dye properties of some armor pieces have been changed to match their wardrobe unlocks.

Ascended equipment will no longer be soulbound when equipped and will remain account bound.

Legendary weapons will now be account bound on equip instead of soulbound.

All existing ascended and legendary equipment that was soulbound is now account bound.

Fixed a bug that caused the Howler to endlessly loop its trumpet animation at night.

Exotic gear sold by Southsun Economists now has superior upgrades instead of major upgrades.

Ferocity and Critical Damage

Ferocity

Ferocity is a new stat added to the game. This stat will increase critical damage for each point acquired, similar to the way precision increases the character’s critical hit chance. All current items, food, upgrades, traits, and skills that previously provided critical damage have now been converted to providing the ferocity stat. In most cases, these stat values were set to the standard secondary stat value of the item’s level and rarity. At level 80, every 15 points of ferocity increases the critical damage by 1%. The downscaling for critical damage and ferocity has been improved to function similarly to how precision and critical hit are downscaled.

UI Updates

The ferocity stat will be listed next to the critical damage stat.

Critical damage will now display the character’s base critical damage as well the bonus provided from the ferocity stat.

Each character’s base critical hit damage is 150% of a normal hit.

Celestial Gear

Increased the stats provided from the celestial stat combination by 6.5% to compensate for the new ferocity changes.

Increased the PvP celestial stat selection so that it will use the proper stat ratios. Previously this stat combination in PvP was providing much lower stats than intended.

Sigils
Many sigils have been updated to be more consistent across the game. We’ve eliminated many of the hidden rules that were previously present and simplified how sigils are used. There have been several balance adjustments made, and a new category of sigil has been created.

General

Sigils of the same name no longer stack together. Example: Sigil of Bloodlust will no longer add bonus stacks if another Sigil of Bloodlust is equipped. Likewise, a Superior Sigil of Fire will not stack with a Superior, Major, or Minor Sigil of Fire to have increased fire activations.

Sigils no longer share the same cooldown. Example: Sigil of Fire no longer shares a cooldown with Sigil of Air.

Two-handed weapons can now have two sigils applied to them instead of one.

Weapon-Swap Sigils

Sigil of Renewal: This sigil’s healing effect now scales better with healing power at a rate of 40%, up from 10%. Fixed a bug that caused the sigil to have an incorrect radius at the minor and superior levels. Increased the radius of the superior version from 300 to 360. Reduced the cooldown of the minor sigil to 9 seconds from 30 seconds to be consistent with other on-swap functionalities.

Sigil of Doom: Rescaled the poison durations from 3, 4, and 5 seconds to 2, 4, and 6 seconds for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Geomancy: Damage has been reduced and normalized between all versions of the sigil, which is 25% of the superior sigil. Bleeding duration has been rescaled from 3, 5, and 7 seconds to 6, 8, and 10 seconds for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Intelligence: This sigil now grants the next three attacks 100% critical chance.

Sigil of Hydromancy: Chill duration has been rebalanced from 1, 2, and 3 seconds to 1, 1.5, and 2 seconds for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Attack-Activated Sigils

Sigil of Fire: This sigil now has a 50% activation chance on critical hit. Damage is now reduced by 15%. Rescaled the cooldown from 5, 5, and 5 seconds to 9, 7, and 5 seconds for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively. This sigil remains unable to critically hit.

Sigil of Air: This sigil now has a 50% activation chance on critical hit. Rescaled the cooldown from 5, 5, and 5 seconds to 5, 4, and 3 seconds for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively. This sigil remains unable to critically hit.

Sigil of Torment: This sigil now has a 50% activation chance on critical hit. Recharge has been reduced to 5 seconds. Torment duration has been reduced to 5 seconds (in an area).

Sigil of Ice: This sigil’s activation now occurs on hit instead of on critical hit.

Sigil of Blood: Rescaled the activation thresholds from 10%, 20%, and 30% to 10%, 25%, and 50% for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively. The damage portion of the siphoning effect now scales with power at a rate of 7.5%.

Sigil of Generosity: Fixed a bug that occasionally transferred a different condition than the one removed.

Sigil of Purity: This sigil’s activation now occurs on hit instead of on critical hit, and it will now only activate when the player has a condition on them.

Sigil of Nullification: This sigil now activates only if the target has a boon.

Sigil of Frailty: This sigil’s activation now occurs on hit instead of on critical hit. Rescaled the activation chance from 10%, 20%, and 30% to 10%, 25%, and 50% for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Rage: Reduced the cooldown from 45 seconds to 30 seconds. This sigil will no longer activate if the player already has quickness on them.

Sigil of Strength: Increased the activation chance from 10%, 20%, and 30% to 20%, 40%, 60% for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively. Updated the description to include the cooldown (1 second).

Sigil of Water: This sigil’s activation now occurs on hit instead of on critical hit. Bonus from healing power has been increased by 50% while the base heal is reduced by 25 points (base activation at level 1 is now about 25 total health with no other attributes). Cooldown for this sigil has been rescaled from 10, 10, and 10 seconds to 10, 7, and 5 seconds for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Duration-Increase Sigils

Sigil of Agony: Rescaled the duration increase from 5%, 7%, and 10% to 10%, 15%, and 20% duration for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Chilling: Rescaled the duration increase from 5%, 7%, and 10% to 10%, 15%, and 20% duration for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Debility: Rescaled the duration increase from 5%, 7%, and 10% to 10%, 15%, and 20% duration for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Hobbling: Rescaled the duration increase from 5%, 7%, and 10% to 10%, 15%, and 20% duration for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Peril: Rescaled the duration increase from 5%, 7%, and 10% to 10%, 15%, and 20% duration for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Smoldering: Rescaled the duration increase from 5%, 7%, and 10% to 10%, 15%, and 20% duration for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Venom: Rescaled the duration increase from 5%, 7%, and 10% to 10%, 15%, and 20% duration for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Paralyzation: Stun duration has been increased from 5%, 10%, and 15% to 10%, 20%, and 30% for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Always-On Sigils

Sigil of Accuracy: Critical chance has been increased from 1%, 3%, and 5% to 3%, 5%, and 7% for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

The following sigils no longer stack with themselves: Agony, Smoldering, Hobbling, Chilling, Venom, Peril, and Debility.

Sigil of Malice: This sigil has been rebalanced to 5%, 7%, and 10% condition duration for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of the Night: This sigil now grants its indicated bonus at all levels rather than a flat 10% for all minor, major, and superior versions.

On-Kill Sigils

Sigils that stack attributes will no longer stack with themselves.

Non-attribute stack-based sigils will now function with one another.

On-kill sigils now gain 5 stacks upon killing a player in all areas of the game.

On-kill sigils that stack attributes now have a unique shared buff icon.

Sigil of Conjuration: Renamed to Sigil of Celerity. This sigil now grants 3, 4, and 5 seconds of quickness at 25 stacks for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively. This sigil now has its own unique buff icon.

Sigil of Sanctuary: This sigil has been renamed to Sigil of Benevolence.

Sigil of Benevolence: Gain a charge of .3%, .4%, and .5% additional healing effectiveness each time a foe is killed—five for an enemy player—for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively. Max 25 stacks; ends on down.

Sigil of Demon Summoning: This sigil now activates at 25 stacks instead of 26. This sigil now has its own unique buff icon.

Sigil of Restoration: Increased the major sigil base healing by 33%. Increased the superior sigil base healing by 25%. This sigil now scales with healing power at a rate of 15%, up from 10%.

Sigil of Speed: Increased the swiftness duration from 5, 7, and 10 seconds to 10, 14, 20 seconds for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Sigil of Luck: Reworked the percentage chances so that all boons have a more equal chance to activate. Added stability to the list (3 seconds). Increased the duration of might from 5 seconds to 15 seconds. Increased the fury duration from 5 seconds to 8 seconds. Chance to activate on kill rescaled from 30%, 40%, and 50% to 25%, 50%, and 75% for the minor, major, and superior versions, respectively.

Runes
All rune sets have been reworked and rebalanced. The bonuses have been updated to be much more consistent for each bonus slot. A lot of the power on each rune set has been shifted toward the later bonus slots to promote wearing a full set of runes. Below is the list of the superior version of every rune set, as they were all changed. Please note the following about major and minor runes:

All major runes have 60% of the stats and proc chances of the superior version of the rune.

All minor runes have 40% of the stats and proc chances of the superior version of the rune.

Changes have been made to the following portions of the trait system: acquisition of specific traits, refunding of traits, and trait tier unlock levels.

Unlocking Trait Tiers

Adept trait tier will now unlock at level 30.

Master trait tier will now unlock at level 60.

Grandmaster trait tier will now unlock at level 80.

Acquiring Trait Points
Trait points have been condensed into 14 points (down from 70), each of which is equivalent to the value of 5 old trait points. This means that instead of granting 10 points of each trait-line-specific stat, each trait point will provide 50 points of the trait-line-specific stats. These will be distributed in the following manner:

Level 30—1 Trait Point

Level 36—1 Trait Point

Level 42—1 Trait Point

Level 48—1 Trait Point

Level 54—1 Trait Point

Level 60—1 Trait Point

Level 66—2 Trait Points

Level 72—2 Trait Points

Level 78—2 Trait Points

Level 80—2 Trait Points

Balancing Creature Stats

Creatures in the level range of 11-79 have had their stats adjusted to account for the player obtaining traits and stats from trait lines later on in the leveling process.

Unlocking Traits

Traits will now be locked by default and will require the player to unlock them via Trait Guides.

All previously created characters will be grandfathered into the current system, which will unlock traits I-XII.

Any newly created characters will start out with locked traits.

Any new traits added to the game will be locked.

Trait Guides can be found in a multitude of different content throughout the world.

Story dungeons

Mini dungeons

World vs. World

Personal story

Map completion

Specific bosses

Trait Guides can also be purchased from profession trainers in capital cities or the Heart of the Mists at the following prices:

Adept tier Trait Guides:

10 silver and 2 skill points

Master tier Trait Guides:

50 silver and 5 skill points

Current Grandmaster tier Trait Guides:

1 gold, 50 silver, and 10 skill points

New Grandmaster tier Trait Guides:

3 gold and 20 skill points

Refunding Traits

The Refund Traits button, which was previously only seen in the PvP areas of the game, has become game-wide. Refunding traits is free.

A player can refund their traits anytime they are not in combat or a competitive PvP match.

A minus button has been added directly below the plus button on each trait line to allow players to refund a single point out of a line at a time.

Fear: This condition now functions as an interrupt and will trigger on interrupt functionalities.

Player bundles (kits, conjured weapons, banners, etc.) will now scale damage based on the rarity of the player’s equipped weapon.

Jezza’s Flamethrower:

Red Button: Fixed a bug that caused the AoE on this skill to be centered on the player’s target instead of on the player. Reduced the damage of this skill by 70%. Added a 20-second recharge.

Underwater Net:

Throw Net: Added a 20-second recharge to this skill.

Mine Kit: Updated the skill facts for this bundle to display the correct damage and radius.

Fixed an issue that prevented attributes from scaling correctly when the player’s sidekick level changed within a zone.

Fixed an issue in which some projectiles wouldn’t respect reflection and blocking bubbles. An example of this is the guardian’s Orb of Wrath.

Non-targetable entities that cannot be damaged are no longer able to serve as valid attack targets.

Fixed several server-side bugs that will help reduce skill lag in combat.

Fixed an issue in which players would occasionally be unable to move if resurrected immediately after being downed.

PvP rank achievements now use the account’s total accumulated rank points instead of personal score.

The PvP rank medal on the Character Select screen now matches the in-game rank.

Removed player rank from the PvP scoreboard at the end of the match.

Racial SkillsHuman

Prayer to Lyssa: Reworked the percentage chances so that all boons have a more equal chance to activate. Added 3 seconds of stability. Increased duration of might from 5 to 15 seconds. Fury duration increased from 5 to 8 seconds.

Asura

Radiation Field: Added strike damage and unblockable skill facts.

Elite Power Suit:

Gatling Fists: Added a strike damage skill fact.

Power Suit Buff: Added a time left counter.

Norn

Become the Wolf:

Howl: Added a skill fact for number of targets: 10.

Call Owl: Changed the way this skill’s targeting works in order to make it more intuitive.

Sylvari

Healing Seed: Updated the hit box of the turret to better reflect the turret’s appearance.

Seed Turret: Updated the hit box of the turret to better reflect the turret’s appearance.

Grasping Vines: Updated the hit box of the vines to better reflect the turret’s appearance.

ProfessionsElementalist

Burning Speed: This skill now evades attacks.

Frozen Burst: This skill is now a blast finisher.

Water Trident: Added 3 seconds of regeneration to up to 5 allies in the radius.

Arcane Shield: Reduced the maximum number of targets on the blast to 5. Fixed a bug that caused the skill to not deal damage when underwater.

Signet of Restoration: Removed the split on this skill so that the signet passive heal amount will be increased in PvP to match the current PvE amount.

Armor of Earth: Reduced the recharge from 90 seconds to 75 seconds.

Fiery Greatsword:

Conjure Fiery Greatsword: Added a skill fact for number of targets: 3.

Fiery Rush: This skill now aborts if Shadowstep or Teleport is used.

Fiery Eruption: Added a skill fact for number of targets: 10.

Firestorm: Added a skill fact for number of targets: 10.

Cleansing Water: This trait no longer has an internal cooldown while in PvP.

Static Field: Fixed a bug that allowed players to block the lightning field.

Tempest Defense: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from activating when an elementalist was hit by basilisk venom.

Glyph of Elemental Power: Added a skill fact to indicate the recharge when the skill triggers its effect.

Tornado: Fixed a bug that caused the area effect ring to persist if the player exited the skill early.

Ice Spike: Fixed a bug that allowed the spell effects to continue even if the skill was canceled early.

Dragon’s Tooth: Fixed a bug that allowed the spell effects to continue even if the skill was canceled early.

Eruption: Fixed a bug that allowed the spell effects to continue even if the skill was canceled early.

Earth Shield:

Magnetic Shield: Added a skill fact for number of targets: 3.

Flamewall: Increased the number of targets from 4 to 5. Added a skill fact for number of targets: 5.

Lava Font: Added a skill fact for radius: 120.

Meteor Shower: Updated the skill fact to display the increased endurance regeneration while the player has the Zephyr’s Focus trait. Added a red ring to indicate area of effect for enemy players. Added a white ring for allied players.

Lightning Cage: Added an unblockable skill fact.

Lightning Hammer:

Lightning Storm: Added a skill fact for number of impacts. Updated the description of this skill to be more accurate.

Cleansing Wave: Updated the skill fact for number of targets to display the correct number of targets.

Ice Globe: Fixed a bug in which this skill’s explosion could only hit a single target. Added a skill fact for number of targets: 5.

Signet of Fire: Added a precision increase skill fact.

Signet of Earth: Added a toughness increase skill fact.

Signet of Air: Added a movement speed increase skill fact.

Signet of Water: Added a conditions cured skill fact.

Engineer

Engineer Turrets: Fixed a bug causing all turrets to shoot slower than intended. Fixed a bug causing all turrets to have a larger hit box than intended.

Deployable Turrets:

Fixed a bug in which engineers could activate overcharge skills before a turret finished deploying, wasting the skill and placing it on cooldown.

Fixed a bug in which engineers could blow up their turrets before they finished deploying, dealing damage without destroying the turret.

Fixed a bug in which turrets created with this trait were not benefitting from Rifled Turret Barrels.

Automatic Fire:

Fixed a bug in which overcharging a turret with this skill would not increase its rate of fire.

Updated the skill description to better communicate the skill’s effects.

Healing Breeze: This skill has been rescaled so that the guardian receives 50% of the heal up front, and the remaining healing is distributed over 5 ticks to the caster and up to 5 allies in the cone’s radius.

Litany of Wrath: Reduced the cast time from 1 second to .75 seconds.

Zealot’s Flame: Updated the skill fact to correctly display the burning duration. Fixed a bug that caused burning to be applied twice when activated.

Vampiric Master: Reduced the effectiveness of this trait by 10%. The healing portion of this trait will now scale with the necromancer’s healing power stat.

Reaper’s Mark: This skill no longer has a reduced cast time when traited with Greater Marks.

Death Shroud: Fixed a bug that caused necromancer skills to be locked for 1 second after exiting death shroud. Removed old text from this skill’s description stating that entering Death Shroud removes spectral effects.

Lich Form: Fixed a bug in which entering Lich Form would not remove all of the effects of Spectral Walk. Fixed a bug in which this skill would occasionally go on full cooldown after being interrupted.

Quickening Thirst: Fixed a bug in which this trait would not activate if a player only had a dagger in their off-hand.

Blood to Power: Fixed a bug in which this trait would not correctly update the player’s power stat.

Death Nova: Fixed a bug that prevented this trait from properly activating when a player is down.

Putrid Explosion: This skill is no longer unblockable.

Training of the Master: Reduced the damage increase to minions from 30% to 25%.

Dhuumfire: This trait has been changed so that it will make Life Blast inflict 3 seconds of burning with a 10-second recharge. This trait is no longer split between PvP and PvE.

Plague: Fixed a bug that caused the ring effect to persist on the player if they exited the skill early.

Signet of Vampirism: Fixed a bug that caused downed players to be immune to the signet.

Rocket Turret: This turret is no longer created with its overcharged shot as the default attack when traited with Rifled Turret Barrels and Deployable Turrets.

Fixed a bug that caused Mesmer clones to receive rune bonuses from their master.

Power Block: Fixed an issue that caused this trait to set skills with zero recharge on 10 second recharge; namely auto-attacks from creatures and players, as well as thief initiative abilities. This trait will no longer trigger through stun immunity effects such as Stability and Defiance.

Fixed an issue where the Legendary Drake’s fire attack in Angvar’s Trove did not function properly.

Fixed an issue with the Black Lion Trader [Armorsmith]. This NPC will once again exchange older town clothes for outfits and tonics.

Fixed a bug in which time-gated features were not properly resetting.

This bug affecting time-gated features has been addressed as of today’s hotfix. If you are being affected by it, you will need to log in to this build before the next reset of that time-gated feature. At the next reset for that time-gated feature it will reset properly.

Fixed an issue that caused daily achievement rewards to be granted erroneously.

Fixed a bug in which leveling up during PvP would heal the player.

The Fires of Balthazar Skin has been changed to be account bound on acquire.

To alleviate concerns about team coordination, the foreign language filter no longer applies in the Edge of the Mists. The filter is always disabled while in any WvW map.

WvW rank-up bonus chests are now limited per account:

No new bonus chests will be awarded beyond a maximum of 99.

Existing bonus chests will be capped at 250. Any beyond this will be discarded.